this post will give you an idea of how robust and detailed the commands are that you can give your ship(s):

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=2647826

what personal ship do you guys use? i'm early in the game after having used the argon patriot game start, and so am still in the argon eclipse.

my play style leans toward capping, combat missions, and exploring, and less on the trade and empire building. so, a decent speed (175 or preferably faster) and handling, good laser energy, and good shields are more important to me than lots of cargo space (i do need enough cargo space though for a varied suite of missiles). and i will have a few transport ships for automated trading and picking up cargo after battles.

what do folks like for a ship that excels in the above? are there any m6 craft that might be well suited? i read in the manual that some m6 craft are as fast or faster than some m3+ ships, i think. this ship is ideally, tough, quick, handles well, and packs a punch.

thanks.

I am currently using the Nova Vanguard. I am about to purchase a Colossus and stock it with Adv. Drones. I concentrated on building my finances rather than combat.

I read where if you increase your combat rating too much then when you attempt the plot missions that they will be too difficult to complete. The higher the combat rating the more enemies you will face. So if you have a high combat rating and all you have is a Nova or your eclipse then you will be toast. Instead you will need a whole fleet in order to complete your plot missions.

Actually, there are 5 novels from the X universe published so far, all written by Helge Kautz. I have the first two, "Farnham's Legend" and "Nopileus", both of which came with the game versions I bought. Pretty good SciFi and quite enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of the games. Don't know how many have actually been translated to english, though.

update 2.7 is out

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=279438

Update 2.7.1 is out.

http://www.egosoft.com/download/x3tc/patches_en.php

So I've had this game sitting around in my game box for... uhh... since it first came out. If I was looking to install it today, is there a set of instructions on how to get it up to date, a tutorial for first time players, or a list of essential mods to install?

there's an auto update function in the settings splash screen that will take you to the patch page on egosoft. not so much with the tutorial, though x3:tc is much much friendlier about easing new players into the game.

re: essential mods, read the SimHQ threads about the game, and check out the egosoft modding forum for x3:tc

If you haven't purchased X3 yet, check this out- the entire X series and a lot of bonus material in one package:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=284820
http://www.egosoft.com/shop/default.asp?lang=44

I've only played X2 before getting X3TC.

So I've just installed this and now I'm looking at the list of mods, CMOD, Naval Shuffle, cockpit mod, trader mod etc.

So much info and no idea where to start. Sigh.

What mods are must haves? There really seems to be no general consensus on the egosoft forums.